Left 4 Dead server config for Survival

[EntropicLqd]

Hey all,

Thanks to your assistance I've had many weeks of enjoyment from my Left 4 Dead server. However, with the latest update I must once again throw myself at your mercy in the hope that some of the knowledgeable beings that lurk on these servers will be able to assist.

I have two PC's on my local LAN. I use one to play on, and I run my dedicated L4D server on the other. My router is configured to send all L4D traffic to the server (which it does admirably).

For campaign mode, life is good. You can vote for the different campaigns and change the game difficulty etc. Sadly it is not possible for me to join the server using a lobby because my router isn't smart enough to re-direct the traffic from my PC to the L4D server. Which brings me (finally) to my problem.

I can find no way of actually getting my L4D co-op server into the new Survival game mode. Once in-game (connected to the dedicated server) you can only vote for normal campaign and difficulty settings.

So, is there any special server config settings I need to use to turn my L4D co-op server into a Survival server? I'm completely stumped on this one.

Also, while I'm here (haven't done a search it just occurred to me; sorry) a few other things that have been puzzling me for a while:

• Is there anything special you need to do to use rcon commands? I've got the rcon_password set, but is there anything else I need to do? (and how do you use them anyway?)
• How do you use server search keys? I've got the sv_search_key value set in the server config but I'm at a loss as to how to actually get it to work from an Internet client perspective (could possibly get a friend connecting over the Internet to force the server into survival mode before I join).
  

As always all thoughts and assistance gratefully received.

Edit: I've found a way of forcing the server to Survival mode ... you set the mp_gamemode cvar to survival. However, because it's part of the config you can't vote between co-op, versus, and survival. Not a huge deal, but it's still annoying.

[EntropicLqd]

OK, I've managed to get rcon working from my machine (after much digging around and false starts).

My network set-up is this: Client --- Server ----|ROUTER|---- Internet Clients

Originally I had the external IP of the router set on the command line. However, the only way I can get rcon to work is if I remove it.

What are the implications of doing this? I know that most people playing on my server connect via direct IP address, but I'm not sure that is the case for all of them. In theory the port-forward I have set up on my router will direct all L4D traffic to my server on connection ... but will the game server see it that way?

Have I just sacrificed the ability for Internet players to find/connect to my server just to enable rcon?

[pengy]

In the server.cfg on your server add "sv_search_key searchkey"
then when you create a lobby, type in what you typed in the server.cfg in your console. Then change the server settings to find best dedicated server, then search for server. Also if you have the external ip of the router on the startup liine, the server won't work, you need to use your LAN IP.

[eipeks]

Add this to your server.cfg

sv_gamtype "versus,coop,survival"
mp_gamemode "survival"

In your startup command line, put...

+map l4d_sv_lighthouse

This is how I have mine and it runs without a hitch.

The easiest way, which I use to connect is type in console

openserverbrowser

and I connect without going to lobby.

[Mooga]

moved to general

[EntropicLqd]

Thanks for the replies.

As it turns out the final thing I was worried about (removing the external IP from the command line) appears to make no difference whatsoever to Internet clients or LAN clients being able to connect to the server.

In the end I created a couple of batch files. One starts the server in co-op mode, one starts the server in survival mode (after adding the mp_gamemode to the config file).

And I always connect to the server via the console anyway. Also, it would appear that Valve have fixed the "follow player" function such that an Internet player can follow me to my LAN server. Before players would get the internal (LAN) IP of the server rather than the external IP. Which is nice.